Leaving Ealdor
by Selkie-smile
Summary: Just playing with what prompted Hunith to send Merlin to Camelot


" _My Lady? Hunith? I must speak with you. There is not much time."_

Hunith felt sick as she stared at the fire. It had been so long since anyone had called her by a title, almost as long as since someone called to her mind, though she'd been fond of it once, before _he_ had left. Before she had had to cut herself off from the resistance.

She couldn't respond with more than emotions but had granted the visitor permission to enter.

The woman entered almost silently, then turned, muttering a spell before sitting and catching her hostess's questioning look. "I'm warding the conversation. There are things your son need not know yet and others who pose a threat around."

Keeping her face carefully blank and her breathing even Hunith watched the druidess for a minute before offering a response. "Do you?" The woman shook her head, holding out a bared wrist and lowering her hood as a show of faith.

"No. My name is Kiara and I mean him no harm. My clan would protect your son with their lives Hunith, you know this is true." Hunith raised a scathing eyebrow at her words, "And yet you cast him out once before, when he was too young and vulnerable to protect himself or understand, with a _true name_ and _alone_ , and were quite happy to let us fend for ourselves all these years. Tell me why you are really here Kiara." The druidess shook her head.

"It was before my time. I was not yet included in adult discussions so cannot tell you why the elders made such a decision but I assure you it would not have been done lightly. I have not heard of such a thing outside of famine years." Kiara dropped her eyes briefly, and Hunith handed her a drink to warm her after what was presumably a long journey in the drizzle.

"There are rumours that Cenred has allied with a high priestess and is searching for 'recruits' to their cause. He is looking for magic users and following any suggestions of it, those that he takes disappear, but they live, in a way. Please Hunith, Cenred is known for his cruelty, whatever he is using them...us...for, it cannot be good. I cannot stay, it isn't safe for you, or for Emrys, but _please_ , get him out. It's too late for me, they have my name, and someone I love. I don't know of anyone else who knows Merlin is here, or what he can do, but I thought no-one knew about me either. Get him out Hunith, they are coming, and I swear to you that I'd rather burn than become that sadistic bastard's toy, or lose my humanity as he makes me a weapon." Hunith's cheeks were wet as Kiara clasped her hands in her earnest appeal. She knew well what the woman before her had sacrificed by coming to warn her and found herself holding the younger woman in her arms as she shook, knowing that Kiara likely didn't have much in the way of gentle human contact left to look forward to. When she finally let go and was again composed Hunith was holding out a bowl of gruel, sweetened with honey. It wasn't much but the druidess understood. They were not of a kind but they were kin nonetheless. Whatever little they had was to be shared.

"Thank you Kiara. Thank you for saving my son."

She nodded and glanced up quickly. "I...I don't think it's Nimue. The priestess who is helping him. She doesn't share power, and she doesn't care for serving any king now. It must be someone younger, but no one would give me her name." Hunith only nodded.

"You don't need her name, they'd likely lie or misdirect you anyway. I may know who it is but to seek her out would be to draw notice to us. That I will not do."

"Hurry Hunith. You must hurry, before there is nowhere left to hide. If your boy was not...who he is...I would believe it already too late. I've stayed too long though my lady, I must make haste to draw them away from here, I will buy you whatever time I can, you have my word." Kiara kissed the hands of the older woman and dipped her head in acknowledgement of the prayer of protection Hunith murmured over her, before leaving as silently as she had come.

Hunith sat in the dark for a long time afterwards, trying to order her swirling thoughts.

Nowhere left to hide.

Certainly not in Escetia, Merlin had to be exiled, without realising it. Cenred would never stop abusing his own subjects and serfs. Where then? Which border would he not cross? Her son would have to be far enough into another kingdom to avoid being easily caught in border scuffles. He needed to learn some control of his overflowing magic. A terrifying idea was beginning to nag at her mind, one she instinctively wanted to reject.

Camelot. A warlock going to Camelot was madness, sending one there for safety sounded like insanity, and yet the more she thought about it the more it seemed like the belly of the beast was the _only_ place left to hide. It was the one kingdom the Cenred would avoid raiding for now, still recovering from the last devastating war between them that had created so many brigands and bandits. Uther did not take breaches of his borders well.

Yet of all the kingdoms, despite the ridiculous paranoia, Camelot was the one where subjects were least likely to spot a genuine magic user, having been kept in ignorance and the practitioners driven underground. No one would expect to find a _strong_ warlock or witch living there, expecting them instead to flee, as the ones she'd hidden had.

Ealdor was too small for Merlin, like any small village there was little privacy, she'd always known that he would have to leave one day, and now it had become too dangerous for her precious boy to stay.

If Cenred and the priestess were searching they'd get to her little village eventually, and a hurried departure abandoning tended crops to rot would draw far too much attention. Fewer would notice a youth being sent to begin an apprenticeship. She could not go with Merlin, even if she was sure that no one would recognise her anymore.

Just before the dawn broke and the first rays of light spilled over the horizon Hunith finished composing a letter to her half brother. As her boy roused for the day she readied his pack.

In a way she had been waiting for this day all his life, _hoping_ he survived long enough for it to come, taught him to live every moment and find joy in small things knowing that any breath could be his last. It was a cruel way for a child to live, yet somehow Merlin had taken the absolute best from the horrors. Now that the day of sending him out into the world had finally arrived it was shockingly sudden and she had no time to truly prepare him, and if she explained the truth of the reasons, he would never leave her behind. Her hero. Brave, just like his father.

She'd tell him after their last breakfast together, one last moment of peace before the storm, give him time to say goodbye to Will, and hope that she is doing the right thing instead of sending Merlin to his death.


End file.
